Reuters ^[1]
October 4, 2012

Syria has apologized through the United Nations for the mortar strike which killed five civilians in southeast Turkey on Wednesday and said such an incident would not be repeated, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said on Thursday.

“Syria accepts that it did it and apologizes. They said nothing like this will happen again. That’s good. The UN mediated and spoke to Syria in the evening,” Atalay said.

The cross-border tensions escalated on Wednesday after a shell fired from inside Syria landed on a home in the Turkish village of Akcakale, killing a woman, her three daughters and another woman, and wounding at least 10 others, according to Turkish media.

Turkey’s parliament gave authorization on Thursday for military operations outside Turkish borders if the government deemed them necessary, a day after artillery shelling from Syria killed five civilians in a Turkish town.

Full story here. ^[1]